wordsearchr
Seasonal & Holidays

Thanksgiving Word Search

This thanksgiving word search hides words like turkey, cranberry, pilgrim to find. Play it free online or print the PDF with the answer key, a handy thanksgiving vocabulary activity.

10 words · 11×11 grid · Medium · Answer key included · Free printable PDF

Seasonal & Holidays
T
B
N
F
O
W
S
B
O
I
C
H
L
S
K
G
M
R
N
T
R
R
A
E
Q
T
N
I
E
D
E
A
A
N
S
L
U
G
R
V
W
N
J
N
K
S
U
R
N
G
O
W
O
D
B
F
I
F
K
I
L
T
A
B
J
E
U
N
E
E
F
I
F
R
H
K
R
L
G
T
Y
F
P
E
U
S
C
R
K
V
A
M
U
D
L
A
I
H
Y
H
M
R
O
T
H
M
W
W
K
W
D
O
G
C
S
F
B
K
B
O
G

Tap the first and last letter of a word — or use arrow keys and Enter. Dragging works too.

  • CRANBERRY
  • LEFTOVERS
  • MAYFLOWER
  • STUFFING
  • GRATEFUL
  • THANKFUL
  • WISHBONE
  • BLESSING
  • PILGRIM
  • TURKEY
🎉 Solved — all 10 words found!

Print this Thanksgiving word search

Did you know?

turkey
The bird got its name by mistake: traders sold African guinea fowl through Turkey, and the label stuck to the American bird.
cranberry
Ripe cranberries hold four tiny air pockets, so they bounce when dropped and float when bogs are flooded for harvest.
pilgrim
Some Mayflower passengers were religious Separatists; others were recruited by investors, making the Pilgrim voyage a mixture of backgrounds and purposes.
stuffing
The name for a comic farce comes from stuffing, because funny scenes were inserted into serious plays like filling between main parts.
grateful
The Japanese thank-you word arigato grew from an expression meaning hard to exist, connecting gratitude with something thought rare and special.
thankful
The word thank shares an ancient root with think; to thank someone once meant to keep them in mind.
wishbone
A bird's wishbone is made from fused collarbones, making the Thanksgiving luck ritual depend on a piece of flight equipment.
leftovers
Bubble and squeak turns leftover potatoes and cabbage into a fried dish, taking its unusual name from the sounds made during cooking.
blessing
The word blessing comes from an Old English term for marking with blood, later softened to mean divine favor.
mayflower
The Mayflower was a cargo ship built to carry wine and goods, never designed to ferry families across an ocean.
autumn
Americans say fall and Britons say autumn, but both words were once used freely on both sides of the Atlantic.
dinner
Dinner's word history leads back to breaking a fast, giving a meal often eaten at night an ancestral connection with breakfast.
plymouth
Plymouth Rock isn't mentioned in the surviving accounts of the 1620 landing; its famous role came from later local tradition.
bountiful
Trees can synchronize enormous seed crops, making a whole woodland suddenly bountiful and leaving seed-eating animals unable to consume the entire harvest.
feather
Mexican artists made shimmering pictures by arranging feathers, creating colorful scenes from bird plumage in an art form preserved in museum collections.

Trivia

  1. Which writer and editor campaigned for decades to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, succeeding in 1863?

    Sarah Josepha Hale, who also wrote Mary Had a Little Lamb.

  2. On what day of the week did President Lincoln fix the national Thanksgiving holiday?

    Thursday (originally the last Thursday in November).

  3. Which U.S. state grows roughly 60 percent of the country's cranberries?

    Wisconsin.

  4. In which large American city does the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade march each year?

    New York City.

  5. Which president held the first official annual turkey pardon ceremony, in 1989?

    George H. W. Bush.

Trivia · 1 / 5
Which writer and editor campaigned for decades to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, succeeding in 1863?
Sarah Josepha Hale, who also wrote Mary Had a Little Lamb.

In their words

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.

Cicero

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.

W. J. Cameron

Is this thanksgiving word search free to print?

This thanksgiving word search is a free printable puzzle with 10 hidden words in an 11×11 grid. Find words like CRANBERRY, LEFTOVERS, MAYFLOWER hidden across, down, and diagonally. You can play it right here in your browser — tap the first and last letter of a word — or download it as a printable PDF with the full answer key on page two. It's free for personal and classroom use, so teachers can print copies for a whole class with no sign-up and no account. Word searches like this one are a proven way to build vocabulary, spelling, and word-shape recognition, which is why they're a favourite with ESL learners, elementary classrooms, and anyone who likes a quiet puzzle with their coffee.

Print this Thanksgiving word search
Printable Thanksgiving Word Search — 10 words, Answer key included

More puzzles

Seasonal

Winter Word Search

Warmed only by the bodies inside, a well-built igloo can reach 60 degrees.

14 words Play →or print
Seasonal

Christmas Word Search

Reindeer are the only deer in which both sexes grow antlers.

15 words Play →or print
Seasonal

New year Word Search

China's first fireworks were burning bamboo, whose cracks were believed to scare off evil spirits.

13 words Play →or print
Seasonal

Valentines day Word Search

Cupid began as Eros, the powerful Greek god of desire, and only later shrank into the chubby winged baby on cards.

15 words Play →or print

Sources: Macy's parade balloon releases and 1931 Chamberlin flight (Transportation History) · Sarah Josepha Hale, Godey's Lady's Book, and Lincoln (National Park Service) · First official turkey pardon, George H. W. Bush 1989 (White House Historical Association) · Wisconsin produces about 60 percent of US cranberries (PolitiFact)

Word list, facts & trivia researched and compiled by Sam Letterman — spotted a mistake? Tell us and we’ll fix it.